nbf10月英语阅读(二)自考试题(2)

2021年1月13日发(作者：孟宪成)
2013年10月英语阅读（二）自考试题
全国2013年10月英语阅读（二）自考试题

选择题部分
注意事项：
1. 答题前，考生务必将自己的考试课程名称 、姓名、准考证
号用黑色字迹的签字笔或钢笔填写在答题纸规定的位置上。
2. 每小题选出 答案后，用2B铅笔把答题纸上对应题目的答
案标号涂黑。如需改动，用橡皮擦干净后，再选涂其他答案
标号。不能答在试题卷上。
I. Reading Comprehension (50 points, 2 points for each)
Directions: In this part of the test, there are five passages.
Following each passage, there are five questions with four
choices marked A, B, C and D. Choose the best answer and then
blacken the corresponding letter on the Answer Sheet.
Passage One
Computers should be in the schools. They have the potential to
accomplish great things. With the right software, they could
help make science tangible or teach neglected topics like art
and music. They could help students form a concrete idea of
society by displaying on screen a version of the city in which
they live — a picture that tracks real life moment by moment.
1



In practice, however, computers make our worst educational
nightmares come true. While we bemoan the decline of literacy,
computers discount words in favor of pictures and pictures in
favor of video. While we fret about the decreasing cogency of
public debate, computers dismiss linear argument and promote
fast, shallow romps across the information landscape. While we
worry about basic skills, we allow into the classroom software
that will do a student’s arithmetic or correct his spelling.
Take multimedia. The idea of multimedia is to combine text,
sound and pictures in a single package that you browse on
screen. You don’t just read Shakespeare; you watch actors
performing, listen to songs, view Elizabethan buildings. What’s
wrong with that? By offering children candy—coated books,
multimedia is guaranteed to sour them on unsweetened
reading. It makes the printed page look even more boring than
it used to look. Sure, books will be available in the classroom,
too—but they’ll have all the appeal of a dusty piano to a teen
who has a Walkman handy.
So what if the little nippers don’t read? If they’re watching
Olivier instead, what do they lose? The text, the written word
along with all of its attendant pleasures. Besides, a book is
more portable than a computer, has a higher—resolution
2



display, can be written on and dog—eared and is comparatively
dirt cheap.
Hypermedia, multimedia’s comrade in the struggle for a brave
new classroom, is just as troubling. It’s a way of presenting
documents on screen without imposing a linear
start—to—finish order. Disembodied paragraphs are linked by
theme; after reading one about the First World War, for
example, you might be able to choose another about the
technology of battleships, or the life of Woodrow Wilson, or
hemlines on the 20s. This is another cute idea that is good in
minor ways and terrible in major ones. Teaching children to
understand the orderly unfolding of a plot or a logical argument
is a crucial part of education. Authors don’t merely agglomerate
paragraphs; they work hard to make the narrative read a
certain way, prove a particular point. To turn a book or a
document into hypertext is to invite readers to ignore exactly
what counts — the story.
Questions 1—5 are based on Passage One.
1. The first paragraph is primarily concerned with ______.
A. picturing in what ways computers can help in schools
B. describing how computers make all subjects easier in schools
C. showing what computers have accomplished in schools
3



D. examining how computers are being used in schools
2. What is the author’s attitude towards the software that will
do a student’s arithmetic or correct his spelling?
A. Amazed.
B. Reserved.
C. Interested.
D. Disapproval.
3. What does the author mean by “unsweetened reading” in
Paragraph 3?
A. Online reading.
B. Difficult reading materials.
C. Regular books.
D. Serious and sad stories.
4. The author mentions Shakespeare in order to ______.
A. illustrate how multimedia presents information in classroom
B. cite one of the most frequently used sources in schools
C. introduce the importance of reading classics
D. show how multimedia is integrated in traditional teaching
5. Which of the following statement is TRUE according to the
author?
A. Teaching students to understand logical argument is highly
ignored.
4



B. The employment of hypermedia may hurt students’ learning
process.
C. Hypermedia exposes students to too much information.
D. Students’ reading skills have drastically dropped.
Passage Two
One theory that has gained influence among sociologists is that
some members of stigmatized groups, when faced with
stressful situations, expect themselves to do worse — a
prophecy that fulfills itself. These expectations, which can occur
even in otherwise fair situations — such as, say, a standardized
test —produce stress and threaten cognitive function. The
effect is called “stereotype threat,” and African—Americans,
girls, even jocks have all been shown susceptible to stereotype
threat.
Now a new study shows that old people are also vulnerable to
the phenomenon. Research psychologists recruited 103
volunteers, ages 60 to 82, to perform simple arithmetic and
recall tests. The psychologists manipulated about half of the
participants into feeling stereotype threat by telling them that
the entire purpose of the tests was “to examine aging effects on
memory.” That statement was designed to prime the
participants’ worry that their advanced age would affect their
5



performance. By contrast, participants in the control group
were told that the tests had been constructed to correct for any
biases that might be associated with age, a white lie imparted
to damp down stereotype threat.
Those in the first group performed significantly worse on the
memory tests than those whose internal stereotypes hadn’t
been triggered. Interestingly, people between the ages of 60
and 70 were far more susceptible to stereotype threat than
those aged 71 to 82. The authors theorize, persuasively, that
people who have just entered their seventh decade are more
sensitive to stereotype threat than those who have already
been considered old for a decade.
Remarkably, the power of stereotype threat was enough to
overcome true aptitude: even people who generally had good
working memories and weren’t prone to anxiety — in short,
great test—takers — performed worse after being reminded of
their age. The power of stereotype is so strong that it can
overwhelm many of our other traits.
But the good news is that you can flip this particular
psychological coin on its opposite side: recent research has
found that positive stereotype reinforcement may be just as
powerful as any negative threat. Indiana University
6



psychologists found that women’s performance on math tests
did not suffer as researchers had expected, even when the
typical “women are bad at math” stereotype was invoked, as
long as a positive stereotype (say, college students are good at
math) was presented at the same time. In this case, that means
that the aged are likely to have better—functioning memories
when they are told, for instance, that older people “have more
experience” or “have seen it all before.”
Questions 6—10 are based on Passage Two.
6. What is the first paragraph mainly about?
A. Examples of discriminations.
B. The concept of stereotype threat.
C. A dominant theory in sociology.
D. Stressful situations for the stigmatized.
7. The word “vulnerable” in Paragraph 2 is closest in meaning to
______.
A. weak
B. incapable
C. insecure
D. susceptible
8. The psychologist used a white lie to ______.
A. weaken the participants’ worry
7



B. monitor the participants’ reaction
C. increase the difficulty of the tests
D. correct biases associated with age
9. The difference between the participants in their 70s and
those in their 60s was ______ .
A. the former did better on the tests
B. the latter were given easier questions
C. the latter took the results less seriously
D. the former showed more concern about age
10. What message does the author intend to convev in the last
paragraph?
A. Negative stereotypes can be turned into positive ones.
B. More should be done to help those discriminated.
C. Stereotypes can be used as an advantage.
D. Discrimination on campus should be eliminated.
Passage Three
A good reader becomes sooner or later a good book buyer. The
sooner, the better. Of course, we all read many more books
than we have room for in our homes, even if we could afford to
buy them all; yet the reading done in a book drawn from a
library cannot be so pleasant at the moment nor so
permanently useful as the reading done in our own copy.
8



A book which is worth reading is likely to be read more than
once, and at each reading some idea or some statement makes
such an impression that we wish to refer to it again. Some
readers underline the page as they read, but I find that a page
which I have underlined cannot give me so many fresh
impressions as one which has no marks on it. If I come on a
passage already marked up, I remember the thoughts and
feelings which prompted those first markings, and I have them
again, with no additions. But a clean page may always give me
something new.
My habit is to make my own index of a book as I read. I put
down the number of the page and a word or two to identify the
thought or the fact which I get from it. On a second or third
reading I am likely to double or triple the size of this index. This
is my substitute for underlining. Most of the books in my library
are so indexed that I can find quickly the passage which from
time to time I wish to look up.
To use a book in this way, organizing it for continued usefulness
year after year, we must, of course, do our reading in a copy
which belongs to us. If a reader were wealthy enough, he could
buy his books always in new and expensive edition, with only
best paper and in the kind of binding he prefers. I never could
9



afford such luxury, and I have known few serious and devoted
readers who could. The books I buy are chiefly those of less
expensive editions.
In the last few years a new convenience and economy has come
to the American book—buying public: the twenty—five—cent
book now widely available at newsstands, drugstores, etc.
Bantam books, Signet books, and Pocket books together offer
many hundred different titles of more or less respectable
literary merits. These inexpensive books give hours of
pleasurable reading with broadened knowledge and stimulated
thought.
As I have grown older and the number of books on my shelves
has increased, I appreciate editions which do not take much
room. When I began reading years ago, I was proud of my small
collection of two or three hundred books. By the time I owned
a thousand, my little study held all it could. Now, in my late
years, I must squeeze books into a city apartment. By careful
and continuous selection I keep my library clown to ten
thousand books. This would be, of course, too large a number
for any but a professional scholar or writer. But my advice to a
booklover is to weed out his library at least once every two
years, giving, away the books which are not likely to be read
10



again.
You can start a good library of your own with only a few dollars,
buying good books in cheap editions or in finer editions
secondhand. Buy at least a book a month. But never, never buy
a book which you will not immediately read. A library bought
only for looks is not literature, but interior decoration.
Questions 11—15 are based on Passage Three.
11. According to the author, it is ______.
A. important to read critically rather than memorize the facts
B. useful to underline some important ideas
C. beneficial to take notes while reading
D. good to leave no marks on pages
12. If you are fond of buying books, it is better to
A. buy those you like
B. seek those which are popular
C. seek some new editions
D. buy those which you can afford
13. Which of the following statements is TRUE according to the
author?
A. The more books you buy, the faster your library will grow.
B. The clearer the index, the more quickly you will find the
passage you want.
11



C. The longer you read a book, the more you will benefit from it.
D. The more expensive the editions are, the more valuable the
books are.
14. The first four paragraphs of this passage deal with ______.
A. why we should take notes while reading
B. how we choose a good book to read
C. why we should have a book of our own
D. how we can read efficiently
15. Why does the author write this passage?
A. To explain how to become a good reader.
B. To give advice through his experience.
C. To indicate that a private library is also an interior decoration.
D. To tell readers that buying cheap books is a good way to start
one’s library.
Passage Four
At one time, it was thought that cancer was a “disease of
civilization,” belonging to much the same causal domain as
“neurasthenia” and diabetes, the former a nervous weakness
believed to be brought about by the stress of modem life and
the latter a condition produced by bad diet and indolence. In
the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, some physicians
attributed cancer — notably of the breast and the ovaries — to
12



psychological and behavioral causes. William Buchan’s wildly
popular eighteenth—century text “Domestic Medicine” judged
that cancers might be caused by “excessive fear, grief and
religious melancholy.” In the nineteenth century, reference was
repeatedly made to a “cancer personality.” As Susan Sontag
observed, cancer was considered shameful, not to be
mentioned. Among the Romantics and the Victorians, suffering
and dying from tuberculosis might be considered a badge of
refinement; cancer death was nothing of the sort. “It seems
unimaginable,” Sontag wrote, “to aestheticize cancer. ”
Cancer is “the modem disease” not just because we understand
it in radically new ways but also because there’s a lot more
about cancer. For some cancers, the rise in incidence is clearly
connected with things that get into our bodies that once did
not — the causal link between smoking and lung cancer being
the most spectacular example. But the rise in cancer mortality
is, in its way, very good news: as we live longer, and as many
infectious and epidemic diseases have ceased to be major
causes of death, so we become prone to maladies that express
themselves at ages once rarely attained. At the beginning of the
twentieth century, life expectancy at birth in America was 47.3
years, and in the middle of the nineteenth century it was less
13